A Grammar of Tamashek (Tuareg of Mali)

184 4 Nominal and pronominal morphology

t-eje t-ajiw-en (T-ka) 'storage area'

t-ele t-aliw-en 'shade'

t-eze t-aziw-en (A-grm) 'crotch'

b. a to e (stem-initial)

akli ekl-an

atar etr-an

'slave, Bella'

'star'

c. i to α (stem-initial)

t-lde t-adiw-en 'sweat'

Since the stem-initial V in all of these examples is already long, the only

change in this V is in its quality features. Formally, we could account for them

by assuming that an ablaut component specifying the relevant quality is

associated to the first V in the stem (disregarding Fe prefix t- if present). For

the nouns in (159.a, c) this component could be represented as a-1, and for the

few cases in (159.b) it could be represented as e-1, the "1" in both cases

indicating the first stem syllable.

There are a number of cases where the shift e to α (i.e. the ablaut

component a-1 applying to lexical e) occurs with a C-initial rather than

V-initial stem. The known examples are feminines with Fe prefix t- but no

FeSg suffix, unless final e is taken to be a Fe suffix (160).

(160) Vowel Shift e to α in Initial CV Syllable in Sg/Pl Pairs

The vocalic shifts in the first syllables in (159-60) are accompanied in
many cases by another vocalic shift in the second syllable. The stems in (159-
60) that show this will therefore recur in later sections.
Rather more common than the full-V alternations in (160) are alternations
of short V in the Sg with full α in the PI, before a CC cluster. The short V is
normally ae (161.a), though there is a less common pattern where the Sg has a
at least as a variant (161.b). As in (160), the cases in (161) are feminines with
Fe prefix t- but no Fe suffix (unless final e or α is taken to be a Fe suffix), and
the basic t-u-CvCCe Sg shape in (161) is similar in accent and in syllabic
structure to the t-b-CeCe Sg shape in (160).

singular plural gloss

t-e-fede t-i-fadiw-en 'cuts on skin' (A-grm)

t-e-nere t-i-nariw-en 'desert expanse'